White Snake Projects is taking a major step in decolonizing opera and returning control of Indigenous stories to Indigenous people. We have received a Civic Practice grant from Opera America, opera’s national service organization, to establish The Indigenous Directory for Musical Storytelling. This directory, which will include musicians, performers, directors, designers, composers, writers, and other creators, will serve as a reference for the performing arts industry in casting, hiring and commissioning Indigenous creators and artists. 

Indigenous music and stories have been long overlooked or exoticized in mainstream opera/music theater because of colonial domination. Twenty-first century Indigenous artists have expressed a need to tell contemporary stories about their people, stories that show them living, working, creating and thriving in society today–stories that are not corrupted by the colonial perspective. Decolonizing mainstream musical storytelling requires that we demand landback and occupy cultural spaces where Indigenous peoples have been ostracized or excluded.

We hope that performing arts organizations will use this directory as a tool to disrupt inauthentic narratives and celebrate Indigenous communities.